Respect campaign - Redhouse Lane Communications

The Football Association: Respect campaign

Interactivity makes the site and its lessons more memorable

Interactivity makes the site and its lessons more memorable

Film excels at driving home a point on an emotional level

How the FA is helping supporters show some respect

Challenge

Grassroots football in England isunder threat. Each year, dozens of referees and thousands of children give upthe game.

Why? They're driven away by aggressive behaviour from thetouchline. The guilty parties? Too often it’s the parents.

Tackling this problem is a major part of the FootballAssociation's Respect campaign. They needed a resource targeted specifically atparents on the touchline, which would inform, guide and support without lecturing.

Our response

The Respect Guide for Parents and Carers is a multimediamicrosite that branches off the FA’s website.

It's a user-friendly resource that raises parents’awareness of the problem and explains how best to show their support.

We used:

short videos showing the devastating impact oftouchline misbehaviour
interviews with respected professionalfootballers and pundits to add weight to the campaign
questionnaires to help parents work outappropriate behaviour for themselves.

The module is now required viewing for any parents orcarers whose children join a club at grassroots level. And everyone whocompletes the programme gets an official FA certificate to prove it.

Result

Two years after launch, over 18,000 people had completed the module.
As a result, the number of young players and referees giving up the game has fallen dramatically – which bodes well for the future of the English game.